Troubleshooting your Installation

While the YaBB team puts every effort into making sure the install process is as quick and painless as possible, there are some users who run into problems. This troubleshooting guide aims to help you solve some of the most common issues as reported by the fantastic YaBB Support Community.

Why am I getting a 500 Internal Server Error (ISE)?

Your server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from actually running YaBB. Since ISEs are very generic, there could be any number of reasons for this to happen. To resolve this, use the checklist below to rule out what could be causing the error.

Does your server require Perl scripts to have the .cgi extension?

Does YaBB.pl, AdminIndex.pl and Setup.pl have the correct path to Perl (the first line)?

Are you sure your host allows you to run Perl scripts?

Do your Perl scripts need to be placed in a special folder such as cgi-bin?

Are all of your CHMODs correct?

Were you especially careful to use the correct Transfer, either ASCII or Binary, according to file type?

Check Paths.pl that $boardurl and $boarddir are set correctly:$boardurl = "http://your-website.url/cgi-bin/yabb2"; # URL of your board's folder (without trailing '/')
$boarddir = "."; # The server path to the board's folder (usually can be left as '.')
If this file is empty see information below.

I just installed YaBB, how do I log in?

The default username and password for any new install of YaBB is "admin" (without quotes). Once you're logged in, be sure you change this to something more secure by editing your profile.

Note: If you change the URL of your new YaBB forum during setup/1st admin login - you may find yourself unable to login & the forum will be in Maintenance mode. The reason is that your cookie is no longer valid (it was created by a different 'host'). The workaround is use FTP to download and then edit ./Variables/Settings.pl.

Locate $maintenance = 1; Change this to $maintenance = 0;

Save the Settings.pl file and use FTP (in ACSCII/txt mode) to upload it to your new YaBB Forum. You should be able to login now.